Bitcoin climbs to record $123,000 as investors eye U.S. policy boost

By Chuck Mikolajczak, Rae Wee and Tommy Reggiori Wilkes

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Bitcoin vaulted past $120,000 for the first time on Monday, the latest milestone for the world's largest cryptocurrency as investors bet on long-sought policy wins for the industry this week, which has been dubbed "crypto week" by U.S. Republicans. 

Bitcoin rose more than 3% to register a record high of $123,153.22 before easing, and was last up 0.5% at $119,750.86. The cryptocurrency is now up more than 27% on the year. 

The U.S. House of Representatives is set to debate and likely pass a series of crypto-related bills this week. The bills could provide the digital asset industry with the nation's regulatory framework it has long sought.

Those demands have resonated with U.S. President Donald Trump, a Republican who has called himself the "crypto president" and urged policymakers to revamp rules in favour of the industry.

"It's riding a number of tailwinds at the moment," said IG market analyst Tony Sycamore, citing institutional demand, expectations of further gains and support from Trump as reasons for the bullishness.

"It's been a very, very, strong move over the past six or seven days and it's hard to see where it stops now. It looks like it can easily have a look at the $125,000 level," he said.   

Trump and his family have made a series of forays into cryptocurrencies in the past year, including a new crypto project, World Liberty Financial, and the launch in January of his own meme coin.

Last week, crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, who was already a major investor in the $TRUMP coin, announced that he was buying another $100 million.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sun’s investment in the president’s meme coin.

The coin, which hit a high of around $75 in the days after its January launch, fell 3.4% on Monday to $9.45, CoinMarketCap data showed.

The surge in bitcoin has sparked a broader rally across other cryptocurrencies over the past few sessions even as Trump's chaotic tariff policies have knocked sentiment in other markets.

Ether, the second-largest token, reached a high of $3,081.94, its highest level since February 2, but is still down more than 10% on the year. XRP advanced 2.7% after climbing as much as 6.4% on the day.

The sector's total market value has swelled to about $3.8 trillion, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Simon Peters, analyst at eToro, noted that bitcoin's price had not hit a record high in other currencies such as the euro, suggesting that dollar weakness was behind some of the rise to a new record on Monday.

CRYPTO WEEK

U.S. Republicans have declared the week of July 14 "crypto week," during which members of Congress are set to vote on the Genius Act, the Clarity Act, and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act.

The most significant bill is the Genius Act, which would create federal rules for stablecoins.

"Developments around these pieces of crypto legislation could provide a further tailwind to the current rally. We wait to see," eToro's Peters said.

Elsewhere, prices of crypto stocks and exchange-traded funds advanced. 

Shares of crypto exchange Coinbase were up 1.8%, while bitcoin holder Strategy climbed 3.5%. Crypto miner Mara Holdings was up 0.1% in U.S. trading. 

Analysts at Oppenheimer said they are cautious on Coinbase ahead of its quarterly results scheduled for July 31, but believe a more attractive entry point could happen after the earnings, and increased their price target on the stock to $417 from $395 per share.

Hong Kong-listed spot bitcoin ETFs launched by China AMC, Harvest and Bosera all hit record highs. 

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak in New York, Rae Wee in Singapore and Tommy Reggiori Wilkes in London; Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru, and Alun John in London; Editing by Kate Mayberry, Bernadette Baum and Matthew Lewis)